Apple Event

Unsurprisingly Apple unveiled the iphone 16, 16 Pro. Alongside the release of watch series 10 and Air pods 4.

Have we reached a saturation point?

Going into this event I wasn’t really expecting much more than the usual spec bump, probably improved camera systems, maybe a slightly thinner iPhone? (Thinnest iphone pro yet!) and the rumors didn’t suggest anything ground breaking either.

This brings us to if we have reached the saturation point for smart phones?

Because we can do just fine with iphone from few years ago. Which would be more than sufficient for an average to even enthusiast user. Most of the interesting stuff now is happening at the software level.

Camera button - A step forward or a step backward?

Apple introduced a haptic camera button. Which at first felt odd. There is an action button which any user can customize to open the camera app. In the last few years all the smartphone manufactures have been carefully taking a look at the buttons and eliminating ones that were little too much. In an effort to make the design of the phone compact and sleek. And eliminating the buttons on the side providing the roomt to increase the screen size by that much.

So naturally Apple’s decision to introduce a dedicated camera button was odd. When I learned that it had haptics built-in which would allow the user to change settings/zoom in and out using the haptics on the button it made me feel a little better. But even so, the smartphone/mobile has been evolving in the direction of less physical buttons and more onscreen/ software controls. I would need to play with this to really see how I feel about it.

Apple watch series 10, AirPods 4 and Airpod pro max

Smart watches have evolved quite a bit to being more of a health accessory. With Apple watches leading the way with Oximeter, Heart rate monitor, ECG, fall detection and assisting with afib detection, temperature sensing, sleep tracking. And sleep apnea being the latest addition that is supported on watches 9,10 and Ultra 2.

I did a comparison of Apple watch series 10 with my Watch series 7

Blood oxygen app isn’t there possibly because of the ongoing case : LINK . Since COVID-19 oximeter has been one of the health apps I have been using regularly using whenever I fall sick. Not having that in my next watch certainly isn’t a step up for me.

I think I will wait for next iteration of the watch, which hopefully would have a underskin glucometer for monitoring sugar levels and the oximeter/oxygen app back.

Airpods 4 - which is kind of having parity with the pro 2 in terms of feature set minus the ear tips. The stems have become shorter and now have ANC.

The airpods are also evolving into a health accessory with the hearing test and its ability to double as a hearing aid on the Airpod pro 2 through a software upgrade coming at a later point.

Airpod Max - I was expecting a max 2 even though the Sony WM-1000xm5 are serving me well for my overhead headphones needs. But glad since that would have been a bit of an impulse purchase to move more in the direction of everything Apple 😈. Instead we now have new colors and charging via USB-C.

Ultra 2 - Black, Apple offering new color options when there isn’t any meaningful upgrade to be done on the device. Again works for me since my watch series 7 is going strong knocks on the wood. Avoiding yet another impulse buy. I actually want the ultra for its flatter looks and increased battery life, not for any of its “Ultra” features.

Will I upgrade?

My iphone 14 pro is doing just fine with battery capacity at 86% after 2 years. Sadly Apple care wouldn’t replace my battery unless the capacity fell below 80% which I don’t think would happen with a week left for the apple care+ to expire¹.

I was on the fence on whether to upgrade my iPhone to 16 and the only real reason to upgrade isn’t for the camera button but the Apple intelligence. For that reason I am going to skip the upgrade this time.

Conclusion

Overall I think Apple had a good event despite only having incremental upgrades to its line of products. Conveniently enough I would be skipping this iteration of its product cycle. Onto the next one :)